The government is to limit the amount of benefit paid to workers if they take part in a strike, the work and pensions secretary, Iain Duncan Smith, has announced.

Under changes to be introduced with the new universal credit from next year, workers claiming benefit will lose any top-up if they are responsible for a reduction in their pay as a result of joining a strike.

The worker on strike would continue to receive a basic benefit if they are in receipt of the universal credit. But if their income drops as a result of joining a strike, their universal credit will not increase.

Duncan Smith said: "It is totally wrong that the current benefit system compensates workers and tops up their income when they go on strike. This is unfair to taxpayers and creates perverse incentives. Striking is a choice, and in future benefit claimants will have to pay the price for that choice, as under universal credit, we no longer will."

Under the system, recipients of working tax credits are allowed to retain their full entitlement for the first 10 days of a strike. Ministers believe this is unfair and outdated because it is based on a system first introduced as part of the National Assistance Act in 1948.

Duncan Smith believes it is right to act after nearly 1.4m days were lost to strike action involving more than one million workers in 2011.

Brendan Barber, the general secretary of the TUC, said: "This is petty and vindictive. Workers are always reluctant to strike, depriving their families of benefits will leave low-paid workers even more vulnerable to bad treatment."

The universal credit will wrap most tax credits and benefits into a single payment. It is designed to ensure that claimants are not better off on benefits than in work.